How To Build Your Online Portfolio

The job market is so competitive that you may be wondering if there are any alternative methods for applying for jobs. Getting yourself noticed for creative, architectural or even international jobs is best done when you are able to provide examples of work in the form of a portfolio of design. There are various tools for hosting, building and sharing your collection of past work.

Social media isn’t just for stalking, networking and sharing funny videos or pictures, it can be a really useful tool for getting in front of potential employers or clients. By distributing examples of your work, you’re able to prove your abilities, rather than having to resort to puffed up wording in a written CV. The future is seeing an increase in infographic cv submissions and people are designing their portfolio to job success, now it is your turn build your way to a new job

It’s worth investing the time to make your portfolio stand out. Not, however, for its glaring grammar errors – make sure you get it proofread at least once. You’ll get to the point where you’re blind to most of it after a while. For the more artistic vocations, the pictures you upload will usually speak for themselves, but it might be wise to explain the brief you were working to and any success stories. Remember to keep it short and sweet. Try to group your examples in logical, clearly marked collections.

Choosing a Portfolio Builder

Choose the online portfolio builder that suits your needs; take a look at Behance, Carbonmade, Dribble and Flickr. Behance is great as, like LinkedIn you can join groups and have peers in your industry like and share your work. Behance claims to get more traffic than any of the other online portfolio sites combined. Carbonmade is an alternative to Behance and great for creatives as you can host a lot more images, but it is very low on text. Dribble is another portfolio creator, which calls itself, appropriately, a ‘show and tell’ for designers. Whether or not this will get you in front of your desired target is dependent on your industry, of course.

LinkedIn has moved on from what was essentially an online CV page, to adding apps such as Behance and allowing endorsements from others on your skill set. Twitter, has its benefits, especially if you have lots of news (attention spans are low on this site) and can be a good way to draw people to your own site or portfolio, but be careful as people don’t like particularly overt self-promotion, ensure you have something worthwhile to say. Facebook is still a powerforce in social media and a great medium to be on, whatever your industry. Word of mouth is king with all of these sites, so make sure to network with friends, family and colleagues to spread your portfolio.

Having done all that, you shouldn’t just sit back and wait for the job offers to pile into your inbox. You need to actively promote your work. Include the link on your website or blog if you have one. Add it to your email footer and encourage traffic to your portfolio through your Facebook wall and Twitter feed. Make sure you have something new to promote each time you mention the portfolio otherwise you risk alienating friends and followers! Be creative with to whom and where you promote your portfolio, as you never know who might see it.

Thank you to the Telegraph International Jobs team for this article. Now, it’s time for you to create your online portfolio, we look forward to hearing how it goes.

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